Shoulder building apparatus for road construction



M. J. DUNN Nov. 5, 1963 SHOULDER BUILDING APPARATUS FOR ROAD CONSTRUCTION Filed Sept. 23, 1958 n 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 ATTORNEY NOV- 5 1963 M. J. DUNN 3,109,351

SHOULDER BUILDING APPARATUS FOR ROAD CONSTRUCTION Filed Sept. 23, 1958 www" LI lwlo /50 68 55 INVENTOR 47 HA .6Z I 5567 MlcHAELJ. DUNN 1 54 D DI BY I Z6 6( .Lig/M163 w ATTORNEY United States Patent O "ice 3,109,351 SHGULDER BUILDING APPARATUS FR OAD C'GNS'IRUQTEGN Michael J. Dunn, 2135 Knapp Ave., St. Paul, Minn. Filed Sept. 23, 1958, Ser. No. 762,747 s claims. (ci. 94-44) This invention relates to road construction, and more particularly to apparatus for building shoulders at the sides thereof.

It is an important object of the invention to provide an apparatus which will be versatile and capable of supplying material for producing road shoulders of various widths and angulations with efficiency and economy of operation.

It is another object of the invention to provide a shoulder building attachment combined with a conventional construction vehicle such as a road grader in such a manner -that the driver of the vehicle can, without assistance, control the entire apparatus and rapidly and accurately build shoulders or trench lls at theside of a road.

More specifically, it is an object of the invention to provide special mounting and bracing members that will enable the operator to raise the attachment from the road when it is desired to manuever the vehicle, such manuevering being accomplished by using conventional vehicle controls and all the while maintaining a strongly braced relation between the vehicle and the attachment.

These and other objects and advantages of my invention will more fully appear from the following description, made in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference characters refer to the same parts throughout the several 'views and in which:

FIGURE l is a top plan view of my shoulder building apparatus, unessential portions of a conventional road grader being omitted from the view, and a portion of a dump truck being shown in dotted line configuration in the position assumed during the shoulder buildingy operation;

FIGURE 2 is a side elevation of the shoulder building apparatus in its normal operative position showing the relationship of the braces and mountings with respect to the front end of the grader;

FIGURE 3 is a side elevation similar to that of FIG- URE 2, but showing the position'of the attachment when raised for turning and manuevering the grader; and

FIGURE 4 is a back view of the shoulder box portion of the attachment showing the controls and mounting system therefor.

Referring now more particularly to FIGURE 1, my shoulder building apparatus is intended to be utilized with conventional vehicle equipment such as a road grader which is indicated generally at 1d and shows only the essential portions thereof which coact with my attachment, the latter being indicated generally at 11. The grader 1t) and attachment 11 are intended to be used in conjunction with dump trucks consecutively positioned at the fore of the attachment, a representative truck being indicated in dotted line as 12 and shown only insofar as necessary to establish the driving relation therebetween. The road grader and attachment are propelled as a unit edgewise of a road 13 for the purpose of adding a shoulder 14 thereto.

Referring now to the conventional vehicle 1li, this unit may be any one of a number of standard types, each being provided with a frame 15 having front wheels 16 mounted thereon and capable of being steered through steering mechanism 17. Frame 1S has, as standard equipment, an actuator 1S which, in the case of road grader illustrated, constitutes a hydraulic cylinder for retracting a reciprocable portion 19 to raise and lower a scariiier (not shown) positioned forwardly on the frame 15.

Also constituting a conventional part of the grader 1d is the moldboard 20 which is adapted to bear a grading 31,1 @9,35 l Patented Nov. 5, 1953 blade 21 and which extends outwardly at each side of the frame 15 to terminate in the respective ends 22 and 23. The special bracing and controlling means for the shoulder builder will be described in detail after the description of the shoulder building attachment, per se.

My attachment 11 has a supporting structure 24 which constitutes generally a frame having a forward beam 25 and a rearward beam 26, as shown in FIGURE 1. A motor 2'7 is mounted securely to one side of the attachment 11 and is adapted to drive through mechanism 28 a conveying means 29 which may constitute an endless traveling belt 3G disposed about rollers 31. The conveyor 31B travels to the left in FIGURE l so as to terminate at 32 to one side of the supporting structure 24 opposed to the position of motor 27. The upper stretch of belt 30, of course, travels to the left so as to carry material outwardly of the road 13 for building the shoulder 14. A hopper 33 overlies the belt 39 and is adapted to receive shoulder building material from the dump truck 12 during operation of the apparatus. A pair of idler rollers 34 are journalled on respective bearing mounts 35 which, in turn, are secured forwardly of the beam 25 so as to bring the rollers 34 into contact with the rear truck wheels 36, as shown in FIGURE l. When the grader 10 and attachment 11 are propelled forwardly, the truck 12 will likewise be pushed ahead so as to maintain the proper positioning for dumping material into the hopper 33. The driver of truck 12 need thus only position his truck 12 with respect to the attachment 11 and then permit the operator of the shoulder building apparatus to operate the grader as Well as to push the truck 12 ahead.

Because of the heavy Weight of the attachment 11 and of the high forces applied to the attachment, I employ gound contacting means such as the caster wheels 3'7 journaled in the brackets 38 which, in turn, are mounted forwardly of the attachment and secured to the barn 2S. The caster wheels 37 normally -maintain suflicient clearance with the truck wheels 36 to provide for gradual curves and normal manuevering during the shoulder building operation.

An important feature of the invention resides in the mounting and control means whereby the attachment 11 may be properly braced to withstand high forces and yet may be maneuvered and even raised completely from the road when it is desired to make sharp turns or to reverse the direction of the road grader 10. Such bracing and control features include a pivot mount 39 which is secured rigidly to the forward and medial portion of frame 15 on the grader 16. The pivot mount 39 is provided with bearings d@ extending forwardly thereof and adapted to receive pivot pins 41 which, in turn, carry the bearings 42 secured to beam 26 at the rear of the frame 24. A pair of anchored fasteners 43 are secured in spaced relation at an upper position on the frame 24 and a linking means such as the chains 44 are secured thereto and extend rearwardly where they are fastened to the outermost end 45 of the scarilier actuator extension 19. Thus, when the extension 19 is retracted, the entire attachment will be raised upwardly and rearwardly and pivoted about the pivot pins 41.

Since considerable force is exerted upon the attachment 11 during the usage thereof from the act of forming a road shoulder as well as from pushing a dump truck and retaining a heavy load of material, it is desirable to brace the attachment in a manner such as to retain the flexibility of operationl without impairing the strength of the mount. To this end, I provide a pair of lengthwise adjustable brace rods 46 which are pivotally secured to a respective pair of bearing brackets 47 disposed at opposite ends of the beam 26, as shown in FIG- URE l. The rearward ends of the brace rods 46 are respectively secured to brackets 48 which are, in turn,

3 fastened to the respective outer ends 22 and 23 of moldboard 2t). Since the rods de are each adjustable in lengthwise direction, the particular setting of the moldboard 2d is of little consequence. lt is important, however, that each of the brace rods 46 exert an equal pushing torce upon frame 2d so as to stabilize the attachment during use. In order to maintain the adjusted mounting of the brace rods 46, l position the pivot bearing brackets i7 so that pins 9 lie exactly in the same axis which passes through the bearings 42 and their respective pivot pins di. Thus the entire attachment El may be raised and lowered by means of the scarilier actuator i3 without removing or concurrently adjusting the brace rods do.

The shoulder building box is generally shown at 59 and best observed in FGURES l and 4. The shoulder building box 59 is mounted pivotally with respect to mounting assembly Si, and the latter is adapted to be raised and lowered in its entirety in guided relation on the standard Si?. which is rigidly secured in upstanding relation to frame 2d at the delivery end 3?, of the conveyor belt Sti. To this end, a vertical raising and lowering device such as hydraulic ram 53 is interposed between mounting assembly Si and the standard 52, as shown in FGURE. 4. V

The box Stb has a strike-oft" blade S4 at the rear thereof, and the Vstrike-oil blade is provided with an extension 55 which can be set at various widths depending on the width of the shoulder to be built. An edge-defining plate 56 is secured to the outer edge of extension 5S and is formed at right angles thereto as to extend parallel to the edge of the road i3 when the shoulder lli is being formed. vlhe edge-deiining plate 56 has an adjustable plate 57 secured flatly thereagainst by means such as bolts 53 and can be adjusted so as to extend downwardly to assist in restraining the outward surge of shoulder building material.

The hydraulic ram 53 is intended to raise and lower mounting assembly l to its extreme positions without regard to line adjustment. ln order to obtain fine adjustment for level work or when a shoulder is to be built with base material at a predescribed depth below the surface of road 13, the strike-off blade 5d and its extension S5 may then be properly positioned to lieat a predetermined height when ram 53 is extended to its lowcrmost position. To this end, the mounting assembly 5l is divided into plate portions 59 and di), plate 59 being slidably mounted on the standard 52 and plate 6i? being vertically slidable on plate 59. Ram S3 is secured at 6E. to the supporting structure 2li and at 61o to the plate 59. The plate 60, however, is independently adjustable relative to the plate 59 and bears an outwardly extending bracket 62 and pivot connection 63 to which the blade 5dis mounted. Plates 59 and oil are provided with respective brackets die and 6:5 in aligned relation so that an adjustment screw 65 is threadably received in the bracket 6d and rotatably secured against endwise displacement in tne bracket 65. rthe adjusting screw 66 can thus be employed to effect a variable adjusted position of the blade S4;- with respect to the entire mounting assembly Si and the hydraulic ram 53, when at its lowermost position, will always return the blade 54 to this adjusted position. ln the course of building shoulders, concrete gutters and other roadside structures may be encountered which require the temporary raising of the blade 54 and immediate lowering as soon as the construction is passed. The operator need not adjustably position ram 53, but merely permits it to extend to the extreme lower position in order to re-establish the proper working depth of blade 54.

ln a similar manner, the outer end of blade S-/i is adjustably positioned by the brace 67 which is pivotally secured at 68 to bracket 69 on blade 5d. Brace 67 has an upper portion 7) which is threadedly received in the block 7i and is rotatable within the lower pontion 67 by means of hand wheel 72. Block 7l is pivotally mounted at 73 to arm 74 which, in turn, is pivotally secured at 75 to the upper end of the standard 52. A hydraulic ram 76 is interposed between the standard 52 and arm 74 at the respective pivot brackets 77 and 73. Here again, the hand wheel 72 is utilized to obtain the workin-g position of the outer end of blade S4 and the hydraulic ram 76 maintains such position when in its retracted condition. Hydraulic ram 76 may be utilized in conjunction with hydraulic ram 53 for temporarily raising the entire shoulder building box 5t) :when an obstruction is encountered during its forward travel. The brace 67 and its adjusting screw 7i) may be utilized to angulate fthe blade 54 outwardly and downwardly, and such outward angulation will be maintained each time the hydraulic ram 76 is returned to its operating position.

Additional bracing may be supplied for the edge-defining plate 56, as shown in FGURE l. The beam 25 is provided with an extension piece 7 9 which has a universal connection titl at its outer end. The connection 8l) carries a brace 81 which may be adjustably secur-ed at 82 to the edge-defining plate 56. The adjustment of brace 81 is made in accordance with the adjusted setting of the strike-oil blade 5ft and provides additional strength for the shoulder building box and its mountings.

lt will be observed that the retractability yof blade 54 and its extension 5S is not only independent of the adjusted -angulation and depth but is independent of the pivotal raising of the entire shoulder building apparatus upon retraction of the scarier yactuator 1S. Thus, `a single operator can, with speed and economy, maneuver his road grader in turn-ing and avoiding obstructions andV yet can continue without assistance to feed material from a dumptruck through the shoulder builder to produce an accurate- 1y dened shoulder.

It will, of course, be understood that various changes may be made in the form, details, arrangements and proportions of the parts without departing from the scope of my invention as set forth in the appended claims.

What I claim is:

l. A road shoulder building attachment for a road grader, said attachment having a supporting structure adapted to be secured to the forward end or a road grader and extending transversely thereacross, la trav-cling conveyor mounted on `said supporting structure and extending to o-ne end thereof, a shoulder' box mounted on said supporting structure and underlying said conveyor and extending beyond said one end of said supporting structure, a rst plate secured to said end of said supporting structure land vertically shiftable with respect thereto, a second plate iixedly secured to sai-d shoulder box land being mounted for vertically slidab-le adjustment upon said first plate, land remotely controllable means for instantaneously raising and lowering said box, said remotely controllable means being respectively secured at the ends thereof to said rst plate and to said supporting structure.

2. A road shoulder building yattachment having ele- Y ments as set forth in claim 1 wherein means for the vertically slidable adjustment of said second plate with respeot to said iirst plate is a mechanically adjustable screw threadedly interconnected between said plates, and wherein said remotely controllable means comprises a hydraulic ram.

3. A road shoulder building attachment as set forth in claim 1 wherein said shoulder box com-prises a bracket secured to said second plate, la strike off blade transversely positioned with respect to the direction of travel of said attachment and pivotally secured at its inward end to said bracket, an edge-delining plate secured to the outer end of said strike oil blade, an -arm pivotally secured at one end -to said supporting structure above said shoulder box, a block pivotally secured at the other end of said arm, and extensible means secured between said outer end of said strike-off blade and said yblock for `mechanically adjusting the height of said edge-defining plate with respect to said supporting structure, and a remotely controllable .iydrau- 5 lic rarn connected at its respective ends to the supporting structure and to said arm at 'a position adjacent said bloek for raising and lowering said edge-deung plate and the outer end of said strike off blade by .pivoting the same about lthe pivotal securement `of said strike off blade.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 6 Ekenstam Jan. 23, 1951 Smith Oct. 23, 1951 Anderson Sept. 27, 1955 Reed May 22, 1956 Ensinger Jan. 29, 1957 Thompson Aug. 26, 1958 Pesce Aug. 30, 1960 MacDonald Jan. 32, 1962 FOREIGN PATENTS Great Britain .Tune 27, 1956 Great Britain May 22, 1957 

1. A ROAD SHOULDER BUILDING ATTACHMENT FOR A ROAD GRADER, SAID ATTACHMENT HAVING A SUPPORTING STRUCTURE ADAPTED TO BE SECURED TO THE FORWARD END OF A ROAD GRADER AND EXTENDING TRANSVERSELY THEREACROSS, A TRAVELING CONVEYOR MOUNTED ON SAID SUPPORTING STRUCTURE AND EXTENDING TO ONE END THEREOF, A SHOULDER BOX MOUNTED ON SAID SUPPORTING STRUCTURE AND UNDERLYING SAID CONVEYOR AND EXTENDING BEYOND SAID ONE END OF SAID SUPPORTING STRUCTURE, A FIRST PLATE SECURED TO SAID END OF SAID SUPPORTING STRUCTURE AND VERTICALLY SHIFTABLE WITH RESPECT THERETO, A SECOND PLATE FIXEDLY SECURED TO SAID SHOULDER BOX AND BEING MOUNTED FOR VERTICALLY SLIDABLE ADJUSTMENT UPON SAID FIRST PLATE, AND REMOTELY CONTROLLABLE MEANS FOR INSTANTANEOUSLY RAISING AND LOWERING SAID BOX, SAID REMOTELY CONTROLLABLE MEANS BEING RESPECTIVELY SECURED AT THE ENDS THEREOF TO SAID FIRST PLATE AND TO SAID SUPPORTING STRUCTURE. 